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Looking at the salaries and position of the safeties with higher salaries than Reid in 2019 I don't think that concern is real. 3 or 4 of the 6 ahead of him are strong safeties. 4 if you go by the Chiefs considering their own Berry (highest paid) a SS.

SS are key to stopping the Gurleys, Elliotts, Michels, and TEs.

There is a fine line between SS and FS these days and they both need to deal with the above and the Mccafferys and Kamaras. Reid has played both.

You can either cover well or not. I'm not so sure that Reid excels in coverage...and that's more important than a thumper these days.

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I'm not absolutely convinced Hoke was terrible given what he was handed.

Short wasn't his usual self. Poe was awful. Butler was pouting. Peppers was old. Addison looked like he lost a step. Heck, the only guy who looked even halfway decent this year was Kyle Love.

Hoke made a convenient scapegoat though, as did Jeff Imamura (because of course, the problem couldn'tpossibly have been Richard Rodgers).

When the trendline is down for the whole line it indicated the prep work wasn't right. The previous season, Peppers, Short and Addison did not look anywhere as bad as this season. They all decided to suck...at the same time? No, this was coaching. RR did the right thing, and it showed by the step change improvement the week Hoke was let go, Washington took over his duties and RR took over the D.

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When the trendline is down for the whole line it indicated the prep work wasn't right. The previous season, Peppers, Short and Addison did not look anywhere as bad as this season. They all decided to suck...at the same time? No, this was coaching. RR did the right thing, and it showed by the step change improvement the week Hoke was let go, Washington took over his duties and RR took over the D.

They didn't decide to suck. For the most part, they decided to get old. Mind you, Peppers was already there. Addison just started getting there.

The exceptions are Short and Poe. most people's read on Short is that he's tailed off since getting paid. Visual evidence definitely supports that.

And Poe? He's just not very good and we stupidly overpaid him.

But again, it's as much or more about Rivera. Rivera has a pattern of protecting his buddies from the consequences of their bad performance.

Richard Rodgers should have been let go years ago, but Rivera just keeps shuffling him around and, in this case, threw Jeff Imamura under the bus to keep from having to acknowledge (again) that Rodgers was sucking at his job.

And then there's Eric Washington. It's obvious to pretty much anybody with eyes and a brain that he wasn't qualified for the DC duties. But just like with Imamura, he's a Rivera buddy so he has to be protected. Hence, why a scapegoat had to be found and why we now have a defensive line coach who has the title (and the paycheck) of a defensive coordinator, but none of the responsibilities.

There are two things that Ron Rivera flatly refuses to do without a gun to his head: admit mistakes and get rid of people he likes. That second part might make him a nice guy, but those two things together make him a lousy head coach.

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They didn't decide to suck. For the most part, they decided to get old. Mind you, Peppers was already there. Addison just started getting there.

The exceptions are Short and Poe. most people's read on Short is that he's tailed off since getting paid. Visual evidence definitely supports that.

And Poe? He's just not very good and we stupidly overpaid him.

But again, it's as much or more about Rivera. Rivera has a pattern of protecting his buddies from the consequences of their bad performance.

Richard Rodgers should have been let go years ago, but Rivera just keeps shuffling him around and, in this case, threw Jeff Imamura under the bus to keep from having to acknowledge (again) that Rodgers was sucking at his job.

And then there's Eric Washington. It's obvious to pretty much anybody with eyes and a brain that he wasn't qualified for the DC duties. But just like with Imamura, he's a Rivera buddy so he has to be protected. Hence, why a scapegoat had to be found and why we now have a defensive line coach who has the title (and the paycheck) of a defensive coordinator, but none of the responsibilities.

There are two things that Ron Rivera flatly refuses to do without a gun to his head: admit mistakes and get rid of people he likes. That second part might make him a nice guy, but those two things together make him a lousy head coach.